Associate
- Joined
- 8 Feb 2008
- Posts
- 801
- Location
- UK
So after months of research the time has finally come to pull the trigger on my first build.
What I still need to get:
What I already have:
I'll just go through my choices and point out where I'm still unsure:
CPU - I settled on this because it will be useful for rendering which is what the machine will be used for intermittently and obviously it has a good reputation for overclocking, which I will probably be giving a go. And of course the fantastic price now in comparison to the 45nm quads is also a factor.
HDD - Reasonable size, 32mb cache which I think seems to be a benefit in Vista. Not much else to say I can think of, it’s something I will probably add to over time.
RAM - I wanted at least 4GB if I was going to be choosing Vista 64, plus it will again benefit rendering and photoshop use. Like a couple of other things it’s also on offer this week.
GPU - Looks to be the king for price and performance. Not sure if there are any real differences from the reference between the brands atm. I did read about some issues with possibly the gddr5 on these cards - any one got any further insight, should I hold off?
OS - I've read a lot of the vista bad/Vista good talk and I think it doesn't really make sense to go XP now so I picked vista, and 64 to make use of additional ram.
MOBO - Probably one of the harder choices and I'm still not entirely convinced. I considered the new p45 boards which do look impressive but decided I'd like the option to crossfire at a later date and from what I have seen the new cards really do benefit from 2 full 16x slots. It then comes down to x38/48 of which there are a number of choices. The p5e has a decent layout; I like the 90 degree sata and ide ports and it’s one of the cheaper boards. I’m open to opinions of this board or others so feel free to comment.
COOLER – The tuniq has a great reputation and I’m confident it can keep the q6600 cool but have a couple of concerns – will it fit my case and motherboard???
MONITOR – 24” for extra desktop space will be especially useful for large photoshop documents. It’s between the dell and the benq. I’m probably going to hold off on the monitor since I’ve read about the issues with the dell and would like to wait and see how the A01 revision [which apparently gets released this month] has improved the monitor if at all.
Let me know what you think of my spec and any comments or suggestions are much appreciated.
Danny =D
What I still need to get:
What I already have:
I'll just go through my choices and point out where I'm still unsure:
CPU - I settled on this because it will be useful for rendering which is what the machine will be used for intermittently and obviously it has a good reputation for overclocking, which I will probably be giving a go. And of course the fantastic price now in comparison to the 45nm quads is also a factor.
HDD - Reasonable size, 32mb cache which I think seems to be a benefit in Vista. Not much else to say I can think of, it’s something I will probably add to over time.
RAM - I wanted at least 4GB if I was going to be choosing Vista 64, plus it will again benefit rendering and photoshop use. Like a couple of other things it’s also on offer this week.
GPU - Looks to be the king for price and performance. Not sure if there are any real differences from the reference between the brands atm. I did read about some issues with possibly the gddr5 on these cards - any one got any further insight, should I hold off?
OS - I've read a lot of the vista bad/Vista good talk and I think it doesn't really make sense to go XP now so I picked vista, and 64 to make use of additional ram.
MOBO - Probably one of the harder choices and I'm still not entirely convinced. I considered the new p45 boards which do look impressive but decided I'd like the option to crossfire at a later date and from what I have seen the new cards really do benefit from 2 full 16x slots. It then comes down to x38/48 of which there are a number of choices. The p5e has a decent layout; I like the 90 degree sata and ide ports and it’s one of the cheaper boards. I’m open to opinions of this board or others so feel free to comment.
COOLER – The tuniq has a great reputation and I’m confident it can keep the q6600 cool but have a couple of concerns – will it fit my case and motherboard???
MONITOR – 24” for extra desktop space will be especially useful for large photoshop documents. It’s between the dell and the benq. I’m probably going to hold off on the monitor since I’ve read about the issues with the dell and would like to wait and see how the A01 revision [which apparently gets released this month] has improved the monitor if at all.
Let me know what you think of my spec and any comments or suggestions are much appreciated.
Danny =D
